This invention relates to structural supports, including but not limited to method and apparatus for raising and supporting a wall and any structure supported thereby.
Support walls or foundations that are constructed on inadequate soils, or support walls or foundations that impose excessive loads on the soil may, after time, settle into the ground. Occasionally, a building may settle in such a way that part of the building settles significantly lower than the rest of the building. In some instances, the entire building may settle significantly off level. Such settling may happen due to poor building materials, poor engineering of the building and/or preparation of the ground below the building, poor or changing soil conditions, and so forth.
Numerous systems for raising a building or a part thereof exist. Many of these systems utilize support devices, often called piles or piers, that attach to or otherwise support the foundation footing. The purpose of the footing is to distribute loads from the structure to the soil in such a manner that the building remains stationary. If the soil under the footing is not adequate to resist the load(s) of the building, or if the footing is too small to adequately distribute the building load(s) to the soil, then the footing has essentially failed. In addition, the footing typically extends out beyond the foundation wall on both sides so that piers that support the foundation at or under the footing are also carrying the weight of soil or other materials above the footing. Therefore, methods of stabilizing a foundation utilizing support devices, such as piles or piers, that attach to or otherwise support the foundation footing attach to an element of the foundation that no longer has any structural function and may cause the piering system to fail due to the additional loading of the soil and other materials above.
At times, a significant part of two or more walls of the foundation may require stabilization and perhaps raising as well. In these situations, support devices are utilized on each of the walls. When raising the foundation, one must be careful to raise contiguous walls at the same time to prevent stresses between the walls from cracking the walls of the foundation. Further, piers located away from the corner of the contiguous walls increase the probability of cracking the foundation walls at the corner.
Piers that are hydraulically driven into the ground use the weight of the building structure and the friction of the soil against the foundations as a reaction force to drive the pier. In some cases, the foundation wall may not have adequate strength to distribute the required load of the building structure to the pier.
Pier locations are somewhat dictated by the capacity of the foundation walls to span from pier to pier and support the weight of the structure. Deteriorated or cracked foundation walls may not have the capacity to carry the weight of the structure from pier to pier.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system for raising and supporting walls, and the structures supported thereby, that does not rely on the foundation footing, better supports structural corners without causing damage to the foundation, and supports walls having structural integrity problems.